The Story of Scrattch: One of the World's Most Innovative Startups

Guest post by Louise Donnelly-Davey, serial entrepreneur and Founder of Scrattch, a platform which seeks to streamline the way users search, store and share the vast amount of information accessed each day across the internet through the application of an online virtual filing system. Scrattch has just been named in the GEW 50, a list of the world's 50 most innovative new companies, compiled by the Global Entrepreneurship Week as part of the Startup Open, a competition that recognizes startups with high-growth potential.

We were thrilled to be named in the GEW 50 last week as one of the only companies
from New Zealand featured.

I
had the idea for Scrattch over 12 months ago and have been working on it ever
since. I have since added two new co-founders (developers) to the team and we
are set for launch at the end of this month.

Before
having children (I now have three aged ten and under) I spent a fair bit of time at
University. I don’t think I really ever knew exactly what I wanted to do or be.
Nothing seemed to fit. I ended up with qualifications in Criminology, Education
and Public Policy after spending a total of 6 years at Uni. I then went on to
work for various corporates, none of which provided me with any significant
fulfillment.

After
the birth of my second child I started my first real business, a clothing
design company. We did well and after reaching an international market I
decided that the overheads were far too high and that this particular venture,
although fun, was never going to enable myself and my family to be financially
secure.

I went on to create a successful online social network for people in
the kids product industry, which was subsequently sold and is still going
today.

After the sale of my social network I felt lost. And it wasn’t until
myself and a friend embarked on an online magazine MAEVE, for the 30-40 year
old female demographic that I felt right again. It was then that I realized
that I needed to be creating something, that I was not fulfilled when I wasn’t
being innovative. MAEVE was sold and I then went on to create Scrattch.

A
bit about what we are doing...

We
saw a problem... one which was frustrating and one which was not being tackled
properly by any other bookmarking or archiving platforms.

Imagine
an International library, whereby anyone could donate books, magazines, videos
or any manner of data to the general pool of information available. Next,
imagine that the curator of this International library was never allowed to
organsise, categorise or file any of the donated material into any sort of
semblance for users to browse. The curator was simply allowed to accept
information and pile it up, row after row, floor to ceiling. Every now and then
he was allowed to promote a few items that he considered interesting or that
people had paid him to keep at the front.

Every
time a user entered the library to search for a book or another piece of
information they would struggle through the first two rows of the available
material, perhaps they would find what they wanted, perhaps they wouldn’t. They
eagerly grabbed at some of the items that the curator had highlighted in the
hope that this would satisfy their needs.

The
internet is not dissimilar. 22 years in the making. Each and every day new data
gets added to the mounting repository of information.

Each and every day a user
will attempt to find information that best matches their requirements.
Unfortunately, the material that is returned on searches is often lacking in
relevance and substance. But we accept that the traditional search engines
hold the answers to our needs.

Our solution.... Scrattch – Search.
Store. Share is an online research, storage and sharing system designed to
streamline the way internet users search, store and share the vast amount of
information accessed each day across the internet.

The massive amounts of data we consume
each day on the internet is hard to keep track of, URL’s get moved, sites get
archived or deleted, important information is often lost in amongst the chaos.
More than one billion new pages are added to the Internet each day. In just 60
seconds more than 1500 blog posts, 600 YouTube videos and 6,600 Flickr photos
are added to the mounting repository of data available online.

Lots of noise. How do you find the
message?

Scrattch alleviates this pain by enabling
users to add their favourite web findings to their own virtual library, then
share their favourites with others in the Scrattch community or keep their
findings private. Scrattch also allows users to add their own unique content to
their Scrattch library, create or join groups within the community and form
discussions around topics of interest.

Scrattch is about bringing people
together in a social forum over common interests and not common friends.

Scrattch differs from many other
bookmarking, archiving and data storage systems in many ways. Scrattch is
leveraged for maximum social interaction, Scrattch enables the user to add
their own unique content, take their content offline and; Scrattch is built on
a simple platform which is easy to learn and intuitive to use. Scrattch is
aimed at the educated internet browser, someone who regularly searches for
great content on the net and who is confident in the web 2.0, semantic web or
social media.

Scrattch is fundamentally dedicated to
creating meaningful context around your most important data. We are passionate
about our mission. We see the internet as it is today as a throw away society.

We want to change the way people interact with the web. Bringing back a sense
of ownership and contentment, quality over quantity.

We have had a busy year, being
finalists in the ANZ Business Plan Competition and finalists in the Unlimited
Magazine (Fairfax) Investment Challenge. As a result of the Investment
Challenge we will be pitching to a group of investors at the end of this month.

And we have not even launched yet.

Louise has a degree in Criminology and a Masters in Public
Policy, has successfully exited 3 businesses and is the original Founder of
Scrattch, launching at the end of October 2012. Prior to stepping out on her
own she worked for some of New Zealand's biggest corporates in New Ventures and
started her professional career as an intern at the Ministry of Economic
Development in their CapitalMarkets team. Lou has 3 children 10 and under
and spends her weekends at the local ski fields.

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The NextWomen is a community of Investors, Entrepreneurs & Advisers. We build formats to support the growth of female entrepreneurs -from
startups to companies making millions. We provide access to capital, resources and networks,
offering our community a support infrastructure critical for success. Join the community too! - See more at: http://www.thenextwomen.com/about-us/contributors#sthash.9GODHllB.dpuf

The NextWomen is a community of Investors, Entrepreneurs & Advisers. We build formats to support the growth of female entrepreneurs -from
startups to companies making millions. We provide access to capital, resources and networks,
offering our community a support infrastructure critical for success. Join the community too! - See more at: http://www.thenextwomen.com/membership/sign-up#sthash.0ApND3BW.dpuf

The NextWomen is
a community of Investors, Entrepreneurs & Advisers. We
build formats to support the growth of female entrepreneurs -from startups to
companies making millions. We provide access to capital, resources and
networks, offering our community a support infrastructure critical for success.